This episode dives into Citi’s new Strata Elite card, including Raymond’s P2 approval, benefits, and the future of its value, along with Citi once again allowing TYP transfers to American Airlines. We also cover the rumored Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite, plus major devaluations to US Bank’s Altitude Reserve and Smartly cards.
The game is always changing.
00:43 – Citi Strata Elite
Details: 80K TYP | $4K | 90d | $595 AF ($450 AF w/ CitiGold)
Historically High Sign-Up Bonus: 5 Free Nights (each valued up to 60,000 points, total up to 300,000 points) after $5,000 spend in 3 months.
Raymond’s P2 may have to take a long look at this one to see if it makes sense.
Kristoff’s Mini Biz App-O-Rama
Mix of P1/P2 business apps for Alaska, Hawaiian, Citi AA, and Wells Fargo cards.
In addition, we also eulogize a long-time friend in the hobby, Simon Gift Cards. We also touch on some negative Capital One Shopping redemption option changes, and the newest relationship JetBlue has gotten into with United Airlines.
Lastly, Raymond gives a retrospective on his recent trip to HNL, with this trip being P3’s first ‘big’ trip.
3. Adapting to the need to hit spend requirements with Amex. We noodled on paying taxes and whether or not we need to reconsider buying groups. Lastly, a few Q1 spending reminders.
4. We touch on loyalty program devaluations including Southwest and Hyatt. The Southwest changes especially felt like a paradigm shift.
5. An End of Baby Bonding Roadtrip: Burning Hilton FNCs and Hilton GCs/Amex Hilton benefits at higher-tier Hilton properties in California. Also an unplanned trip to Disneyland with 2.5 month old P3.
Happy Holidays! Kristoff and Raymond dive into the holiday spirit, covering increased shopping portal offers, Citi and AAdvantage becoming exclusive partners, end-of-year credit card housekeeping notes, and insights into elevated BofA and US Bank benefits when banking as a preferred client. To wrap up our last public episode of the year, we reflect on what we’re most thankful for this year… – TPP
In this episode, we are reminded that it’s already October 2024, and that means Q4 is in full swing. With that, we’ve decided to load up on some new cards, but not everything on that front was a success. Synchrony, Amex & Chase have some highs as we prepare for more wedding banquets, while BofA and Wells Fargo are still odd and fickle beasts. Lastly, we review what’s left for cashing out MRs post-October 1st—hopefully less valuable cash outs mean we’ll be focused on high-value aspirational travel in 2025. -TPP Please consider subscribing to our Patreon for access to our credit card rewards enthusiast content, including access to the members-only The Points Project Slack community at https://www.patreon.com/ThePointsProject.
ABOUT TPP
The Points Project is a podcast going deep into the life of a credit card optimizer. We talk about wins, fails, award trips and everything that falls in between.
We offer a public (free) version of the show, which should appeal to even the most casual of credit card fans. That said, we also aim to provide advanced credit card hobbyists interesting insights in our free show.
We also host a Patreon feed of the podcast, called the Enthusiasts Tier, where we go deeper into certain topics that aren’t discussed on the public show. We post about 3x the amount of content for our Patreon podcast feed than is what is posted on the public podcast feed. Included in the Enthusiasts tier level is access to a growing Slack community of like-minded avid credit card fans, where you can ask questions, share data points, and just talk shop as you’d like.
Regardless of if you subscribe to our Patreon or casually listen to the public show, we truly hope that you enjoy the conversations! -TPP